The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William, E. Bohn Monopoly Over In Baseball? Last year, people were saying that the big league baseball races were all settled in advance. The Yankees and the Dodgers had...
...For ages this team has been one of the lowest of the low...
...The Yankees and the Dodgers had everything tied up...
...Five teams were within a game and a half of one another at one point...
...I mean that they dare to take chances, are quick to jump at an emergency opening...
...If some inspiration from the chemist's bottles can increase a man's faculty for knocking home runs or stealing second, the use of such assistance will tend to level the performance of the teams...
...I have my own theory about the cause of the astounding things which arc taking place, but for the moment I prefer to keep it dark...
...It is like the time Truman beat Dewey...
...He has consistently acted his part as a fine athlete and a fine gentleman...
...It has had one great pitcher, Robin Roberts...
...Congress ought to do something about it...
...But everyone has simultaneously felt sorry for him...
...Congress and the courts remained strictly on the sidelines...
...With 50 games played, they were in second place, a half-game behind Milwaukee...
...He would pitch perfect ball and then lose his games because he had a rotten team behind him...
...But the doctors who know most about these drugs say that all of this theorizing is contrary to facts...
...Some of the experts now venture the guess that the upsets are due to excessive use of drugs by the athletes...
...If the duPonts can be separated from General Motors, can't something be done about the Yankees and the Dodgers...
...To see really big-time baseball, their people would have to come to New York and buy expensive tickets to the Subway Series...
...There is nothing to gamble on...
...The mighty Yankees were four games out of first place in the American League...
...That is the way things were until the very end of the season of 1956...
...Little towns like Chicago and Philadelphia were out in the sticks...
...The city and state have been proud of him...
...All of that was last year...
...They are alive and alert...
...Having taken up my residence in Delaware near the Pennsylvania line, I have a special opportunity to observe the effect of this transformation...
...It was sad that he did not belong to a team in which his talents would bring their appropriate reward...
...The rooters as far west as Milwaukee and St...
...The great Roberts was not performing up to standard...
...From the start of the season, the Phillies seemed an entirely different outfit...
...As things look now, any of the five has a fair chance to win...
...Another theory is that night life is interfering with daylight achievements...
...When the Phillies were at their lowest, some of their players were fined for night club performances...
...Such help is open to all on equal terms...
...But the wise guys of the sports pages must have a theory for their customers...
...Even if later these players are pushed clown to a lower rank, for a good part of the season they have tasted dizzy days of success...
...rob him of peace by their over-advertised achievements among the midnight roisterers...
...Now I open my morning paper and what I see fills me with excitement...
...We were told that something would have to be done by law to break up this metropolitan monopoly...
...Boys who make much of such items are merely satisfying the love of gossip and filling their space...
...I am not suggesting, of course, that the Phillies' season of triumph is in any degree due to my having swung my allegiance to them...
...Each of them would win the pennant in its own league and then we would have the national series of five games or seven and the season would be finished...
...But a new youngster named Jack Sanford is consistently winning games...
...And then—on April 1—I moved to Delaware...
...And now some of the Yankee heroes, not content with striking pain to Casey Stengel's heart by day...
...Pills may help for an hour, but in the long run they cannot be counted on...
...In general, there are two theories —equally silly...
...And in the National outfit, there is going on the lightest and most wide-open race that anyone can recall...
...People spoke apologetically of approaching age...
...They had so much money that they could buy the best players and that was that...
...After it had happened, every fellow who could operate a typewriter with two fingers knew just why...
...If you know in advance how a season will come out, how can you expect people to spend money to see the shows...
...But I fear there is not enough of this sort of thing to have any effect on the standing of the clubs...
...Or perhaps the case could be brought before the Supreme Court...
...Without their help the whole face of the baseball world was transformed...
...Louis can, for the moment, consider themselves as good as anyone living within the shadow of the Empire State Building or Boro Hall...
...I have experienced with wonder and amusement the transfer of my loyalty from Yankees to Phillies...
...Two or three new infielders and outfielders are really good—and the old players are performing like Yankees rather than like Phillies...
...They are winning games and having fun...
Vol. 40 • June 1957 • No. 26
